PRESS WATCH: "Aaron Martin understands he has to step up and do a job and I have every faith in him." Coventry City's Tony Mowbray

29 April 2015

Matt Joyce

The Sky Blues boss wants to see the centre-back step up on Sunday and has encouraged him to become 'more dominant'...

Coventry City manager Tony Mowbray has urged Aaron Martin to take his chance on Sunday following the injury to Matthew Pennington.

Mowbray has opted for Reda Johnson and Pennington at the heart of the defence for the last four games but the Everton loanee has been ruled out of the trip to Crawley with an ankle injury.

Now the City boss wants Martin to step up and has faith that the former Southampton, Birmingham and Yeovil centre-back can put in a crucial performance.

He told the Coventry Telegraph: “Aaron understands he has to step up and do a job and I have every faith in him that he will, and the positive thing for him is he’s coming in on the right-hand side which is his more natural side.

“He has played in games where we’ve not lost away from home; in fact just about all of them apart from the last one at Bristol so he knows the expectation and what’s required.

“It’s about getting the basics right and then your game falls into place. Aaron has to become more dominant aerially. I built a career for 20-odd years on winning headers and being dominant. I used to head everything back and then the perception is you are pretty good at what you do.

“They have to do their job, keep the ball out of the net. Pass it as simple as you can, pass it to your midfield player or full-back. Go back to your goalie if you have to but it’s not a difficult job.

“He found himself out of the team because Reda can do those basics and Pennington had shown a real level of consistency so Aaron was the one who came out. Now he’s got another opportunity. He’ll be a little bit disappointed at being left out but he has to come back and show us how much it means to him."